


on the difficulty of pulling off the modern!Amis AU

by TheHighestPie



Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types, Les Misérables - Victor Hugo
Genre: Gen, Meta, a critical discussion but honestly not an attack, because apparently people are receptive to fic-meta being posted on this site?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-14
Updated: 2013-02-14
Packaged: 2017-11-29 05:27:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/683354
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheHighestPie/pseuds/TheHighestPie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Simultaneously posted to tumblr under the same username.  Feel free to register your reactions through your preferred site.</p></blockquote>





	on the difficulty of pulling off the modern!Amis AU

(This is not meant to be an attack, to address any particular person or fic, or to deter anyone from doing what makes them happy.  However, like all my meta, I do hope it helps someone think through an issue in an interesting way.)

If one species of fic(/RP/art) has exploded in the wake of the recent LM film, it's the modern!Amis AU.  In many ways, this is a totally understandable trend; it lets people - particularly enthusiastic newcomers - play with beloved characters without needing to go to the admitted effort of learning about their unfamiliar and moderately obscure time period.  The AU is comparably easy.

It's also very, very hard to get right.

As much as we love the Amis, we know relatively little about them.  We have a few personal traits for each that are rich with interpretive potential, but a whole lot of their characterizations come from fanon and individual preference.

What we _do_ absolutely know about them is their shared passion for advancing the social democratic project through transformative insurrection.  An AU in modern NYC or Paris seriously undermines this.

The trouble with transposing them to a modern democratic context is that the sort of ideals that were radical for them are so mainstream now.  Sure, we haven't achieved all their goals by a long shot, but today there's nothing _revolutionary_ about "fighting" for equal political representation, freedom of expression, or better public schools.  Moreover, citizens of modern democracies are no longer operating under the assumption that collective violence can be a normal and legitimate means of regime change.  Go ahead and make them activists for prison or school reform, but know that you're gutting the violent radicalism that is so fundamental to their characters.

Maybe you decide that the solution is to make them "deep green" environmentalists who think that violence might under certain circumstances be justifiable to protect the planet's future  (a specific take that I don't think I've seen so far).  That could be interesting, but you run into the issue of having turned them into a splinter group, whereas 1830s republicanism wasn't nearly so far-out.  It'll be much harder for you to make them sympathetic to the bulk of your mainstream, plugged-in readers if you make them that aggressively (and un-Brickishly) counter-cultural.

In short, if your modernization is going to be faithful to the whole of their characters, don't put them in New York; put them in Tehran. 

There are places in the world where it is dangerous to speak your mind, wear your preferred clothes, and criticize the political and religious powers that be.  There are places where successful insurrection could create a better society.  There are generations that look back at the decades that preceded them and see a violent history of hijacked dreams.  There are defiant associations of young people who really, really know what it means to laugh in the face of fear.

Why isn't anyone taking up the challenge of writing about _them_?

Again, there's nothing _wrong_ with having your Amis blog about social issues while joking around in a Starbucks, not if it makes you and your readers happy.  It's a perfectly fun way of playing with their personalities and their interactions with each other.  But know that, in doing so, you're only engaging with a fraction of who they are.

**Author's Note:**

> Simultaneously posted to tumblr under the same username. Feel free to register your reactions through your preferred site.


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